Listen Up! How Better Listening Can Improve Your Communications – and Further Your Mission
January 22, 2026
Good communicators know how to write and speak with clarity and conviction.
Great communicators know how to listen.
The same is true for leaders — and, in turn, the organizations they serve.
This truth has been highlighted through a project we’re working on in support of a funder collaborative committed to helping nonprofits and funders become better listeners.
Much of the collaborative’s work focuses on informing social good leaders and program officers, yet it also unearthed some relevant lessons for communicators.
These takeaways can help guide more resonant, relevant, and relatable communications.
They can also help leaders as they refine how their organizations operate and engage with their communities.
What careful listening can reveal
Here’s one example we’ve discovered through our research for the funder collaborative: an affordable housing organization that discovered through listening to feedback from community members that the organization’s maintenance staff had built deep trust with residents through regular contact. This gave members of the maintenance team insights and information that weren’t being shared with caseworkers.
The organization used that insight — gathered through listening — to train maintenance staff on how to make referrals. In turn, more residents began accessing vital services.
Most of us think we are good listeners. And no doubt many of us are.
Yet, when it comes to listening in service of your mission and furthering your story, there’s likely work to be done.
To that end, here are three questions to consider:
1. Who are you listening to?
It’s easy to get trapped in a comfortable bubble that limits your sources of information.
Insights from your colleagues and professional partners are certainly valuable, yet they are not a replacement for finding ways to consistently listen to the voices of those your organization serves, as well as donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders.
Using simple surveys, hosting gatherings, and meeting more people where they are, literally, can help broaden perspective, build trusting relationships, and improve storytelling.
2. Are you asking the right questions?
Asking “more beautiful questions” can help you move beyond simply soliciting information to invite collaboration and trust. A good example: instead of asking: “What are your biggest day-to-day problems?” consider: “What barriers are you facing that keep you from fulfilling your potential?”
Even subtle reframing can help move people beyond providing rote answers. How we frame a question can authentically show that you truly want to listen to what the other person has to say.
One approach we’ve found successful over the years is the simple follow-up question: “Why do you think that?”
More often than not that question helps people get to the essence of what they are trying to convey.
3. How are you responding to what you’ve heard?
Being a good active listener is the first step. Yet how you respond to that feedback is also vital and demonstrates that you value feedback and will look for ways to incorporate what you heard moving forward.
Are there new ways to frame your messaging that will resonate in more accessible and profound ways? Are there fresh approaches to reach key audiences? Are there important new stories that can be told in ways that are both ethical and impactful?
In a world where we are constantly being bombarded with information, being a good listener can be challenging. Those who commit to moving beyond that challenge can make a bigger difference by making sure more voices are heard.
